John J. Pecchio was born in Elmira, New York on May 16, 1938. John was an outstanding baseball player at the Elmira Free Academy high school, where he was chosen by the All-Star Baseball Conference of the Southern Tier as the most outstanding first baseman. When John graduated in 1956 from the Elmira high school he was invited to train at the Brooklyn Dodger’s baseball camp in Vero Beach, Florida. A short time later John was asked to sign a professional baseball contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, but when his brother Anthony, who lived in Florida at the time took ill, that forced John to give up his baseball career to care for his brother until his death.
After the death of his brother, John returned back to Elmira where his best friend Basil, introduced him to his father Jimmy Stepanian, who owned a shoemaking and repair shop in Elmira, New York. After John was hired and earned his apprenticeship in shoemaking and leather work, he decided to ventured out on his own and opened a shoemaking shop in Waverly, New York.
After 10 years of operating his shoemaking shop in Waverly, he received a call from the Director of Education at the Elmira, New York Reformatory Prison, which later was changed to the Elmira Correctional Facility, an all male maximum-security prison, wanting him to teach prisoners a vocational trade in shoemaking, shoe orthopedics and leather-crafts. John accepted the job and worked days at the prison, while attending night classes at Oswego College where he earned a teaching certificate.
John met and married his wife Pamela and they raised four children that are now pursuing their own careers.
After 25 years of working as a vocational instructor at the Elmira Correctional Facility Prison he retired in May of 1992.
His wife Pam is a retired Respiratory Therapist from the Arnot Odgen Medical Center in Elmira, New York.
When John and Pam retired they bought a cottage on a small lake in Troy, Pennsylvania where John started writing his books, Hell Behind Prison Walls, and The Devil’s Den of Prison and Justice. His hobbies are, sports, carpentry and fishing.
Occasionally, John and his wife will travel around the country doing book signings, and when he is asked, John will do presentations on prisons. His most recent presentations were at the Libertarian Club in the Pocono’s, the Rotary Club in Corning, New York and for the Criminals Justice Department Students at the Elmira, College in Elmira, New York.